Comparative investigation of structural, morphological and temperature-dependent photoluminescence characteristics of trivalent rare-earth-activated NaCaPO4 phosphors for solid-state lighting applications

Abstract

This study explores the synthesis, structure, morphology, and photoluminescence features of trivalent RE3+-activated NaCaPO4 phosphors, aiming to develop phosphor materials for white-light-emitting diode (WLED) applications. Single-phase polycrystalline NaCa(1-x) REx3+ PO4 (REx3+ = Sm, Eu, Dy, and Tb) phosphor materials with various REx3+-doping percentiles were produced by a solid-state reaction process, which were analyzed using various characterization techniques. The FullProf Suite software program was used for phase evidence and crystalline structure analysis, confirming the composition of orthorhombic materials as a single phase. FE-SEM micrographs revealed asymmetrically stacked morphologies across all the compositions. This study reveals that trivalent RE3+-activated phosphors produced exceptional PL outcomes. Dexter's and Blasse's approaches were used to establish the interaction mechanisms and critical energy transfer ranges as dipole-dipole. Lifetime decay patterns were used to fit a bi-exponential function and the resulting values were approximated in milliseconds. This study reveals that trivalent RE3+-activated NaCaPO4 phosphors, with their thermal resilience and color integrity, have potential applications in solid-state lighting (SSL) technology.